Flash Lite 3 to be Shipped on all Windows Mobile Devices
Yesterday, Bill from Adobe announced that Microsoft has licensed Flash Lite 3 and Reader LE for future Windows Mobile based devices. Flash Lite 3 will be pre-installed in the Internet Explorer Mobile browser on future Windows Mobile devices. Additionally, Reader LE will be pre-installed to allow consumers to open and view PDF documents while they’re away from their computer.
How many Windows Mobile devices
Recent information for Windows Mobile devices states that devices were 11 million shipped in 2007 and 20 million are expected in 2008. Also, according to Strategy Analytics, in 2007 1/3 of Windows Mobile devices shipped in North America (33%) with other regions representing other values: Western Europe (29%), APAC (20%) and the rest of the world (18%). Visit Microsoft to provide guidance on future handset shipments but you can visit their site to get a sense of the range of devices they have in market today. This deal is different than other licensing agreements Adobe has with OEMs. Because the license agreement is with Microsoft, it will be part of their Windows Mobile OS in the future meaning any OEM that will ship a Windows Mobile device will have Flash Lite 3 pre-installed. Today these OEMs include HTC, iMate, Samsung and others.
U.S. Mobile Industry is Behind the Times and Other Lies My Mother Told Me
As a resident of the United States, I’ve longed for the latest mobile phones from Japan, Korea, and other more “tech-fortunate” countries throughout APAC and Europe. I live in arguably the most powerful industrialized nation on the planet, and yet I still can’t video chat from mobile to mobile like they do in Japan. My free-phone-with-a-two-year-commitment doesn’t come with a QR Code™ reader pre-installed. And, let’s be honest, most entry level phones in the States don’t even include Bluetooth or a 1.3 megapixel camera. Until recently, I was convinced that the U.S. mobile market is behind the times.
So what gives?
Very recently, a number of studies have surfaced leading me to think that maybe, just maybe, things aren’t so bad on this side of the pond. For example, according to the CTIA in Wireless Wave Fall 2007 – A Continental Idea:
[..] earlier this year Merrill Lynch reported that Europeans still pay an average of 19¢ per minute for an average of 153 minutes a month, compared to 5¢ per minute for 834 minutes a month for customers in the U.S. The U.S. is the leader in offering bucket plans, driven by competitive market forces to offer more minutes at a lower effective rate.
3G penetration stats are looking up, too. According to industry analyst Chetan Sharma, President of Chetan Sharma Consulting, “Because of the heavy penetration of the Internet over the desktop, as well as the late advent of 3G in the market, there was not a big driver for mobile Internet until the last one or two years. As 3G penetration has been increasing[,] now we’re up to 15 to 16 percent penetration (in the U.S.).”
M:Metrics — which conducts an on-going survey of thousands of wireless customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. — recently found that a slightly higher percentage of U.S. consumers browse wirelessly for news and information than their European counterparts.
The study also shows that the U.S. is at the top in average number of minutes used per month at 832 (Canada, the number two country, averages 429 minutes). The country with the lowest average revenue per minute — a measure of the effective price per voice minute — is again the U.S. at $0.04 USD (South Korea and Mexico are tied for the number two spot at $0.11 USD). And finally, the number of wireless carriers with over one million subscribers is the largest in the U.S. at 10 companies. The country with the next highest number is the England.
My conclusion? Maybe it’s true that the grass is always greener on the other side.
A Bright Future for Flash Lite with More Than 460,000 Mobile Devices in 2008
Bill Perry (Mobile evangelist for Adobe) has just posted the Flash Lite install base forecasts for 2008 from the Strategy Analytics Flash-Enabled Handset Forecast from January 4, 2008. The forecast includes the installed base of Flash Lite devices by Region, Country and Version. Bill’s PDF highlighting the 91% Global Growth of Flash Lite in 2007 can be downloaded here.
Worldwide, the totals for 2008 add up to: 461,733,000 mobile devices with Flash Lite pre-installed.
The score card for 2008 reads:
1. APAC – 154,761,000
2. Western Europe – 107,832,000
3. Japan – 77,603,000
4. Americas – 64,561,000
5. CALA – 32,024,000
6. Central Europe – 24,952,000
What are the biggest surprises?
I truly did not expect the Flash Lite 2.x numbers to be so high. Adobe is forecasting that in 2008 the Americas and Western Europe will have higher Flash Lite 2.0 or 2.1 adoption than 1.1! Despite this, Flash Lite 1.1 will still most likely stay the obvious standard.
I am very excited to see that the Americas are so close in numbers to Japan. Additionally, they have more than double the numbers of Central America, Latin America, and Central Europe. It’s no surprise that Western Europe and APAC still top the charts.
What does this all mean?
As companies like Verizon continue to grow with Flash Lite, consumer adoption rates will no doubt go up as well. As a full service mobile marketing firm that is passionate about mobile and pushing the medium forward, we can continue to pursue Flash Lite development with our clients—knowing that one day in the near future it will become the mobile standard of third party development.
We have been working commercially with Flash Lite for some time. Our projects have ranged from oem user interface development, to consumer content such as custom applications and games. We couldn’t be happier about the news.
Flash Lite :: Best Wireless/Mobile Development Tool or Add-in
JupiterWeb, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation, today announced the winners of Developer.com product of the year 2007 contest. Flash Lite 2 is the winner of wireless/mobile development tool or add-in.
Each year Developer.com has its Product of the Year contest. We ask readers to nominate then vote on the technologies, tools, and programs that they think are the best in their field. Last year we said that the contest’s results were the most clear-cut we had ever seen. This year’s results were even more clear-cut than ever. In the main category of Technology, the winner dominated the category with 61% of the votes. Tools such as Apache Ant, which won Development Utility of the year, and Adobe Flash Lite 2, which won Wireless/Mobile development tool of the year, both won by some of the widest margins we’ve ever seen.
Surprisingly we had a shift in brand alliance, four repeat winners, and a winner in the Wireless/Mobile Development Tool or Add-in category that we never expected.
Congratulations to the AMaD (Adobe Mobile and Devices) team.
Read the full article on developer.com.
